Lupen Crook Interview

It’s rare to find a band with both a good heart and a dark
soul.At the end of 2009, Lupen Crook
and The Murderbirds are proving that they have both.In a year that has seen the band postpone the
release of their third album and cancel a UK tour due to laryngitis, they
have released two EPs at no cost whatsoever instead of taking the cash that the
fans seem more than willing to pay.At a
time when making a living from music seems harder and harder to do, it’s not
the shrewdest of moves, but they’re keen to let us know that it’s not all about
the money, after all.

“If money was our prime objective, this Family would operate
very differently,” they tell us. “We are artists.Each of us has a different trade, but
together we aim to produce quality material that people can trust in and
connect with. The joy of creating something out of nothing and giving that to
people far outweighs any desire to make money. We operate on a torn and
tattered shoestring at the best of times, but that just goes to show the level
of commitment between us all. We love what we do and want you to have the
opportunity to experience it.What would
be the point in doing it otherwise?”

Quite.November 16th
sees the release of the second free EP in just over two months, this time in association
with mental health charity YoungMinds.In the press material to go with the release, details are given of Lupen
Crook’s own links with schizoaffective disorder, a mental illness that perhaps
many are not aware of.Symptoms of the
illness are reminiscent both of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, with
extreme mood swings, hallucinations and social disaffection being some of the
more prominent indicators.Rather than
go for the pity party, this release is about awareness

‘The Curse of the Mirror Wicked EP’ will surprise some fans
with the reflective, almost repentant, undertones to the tracks.It’s a stripped down collection when compared
with the relatively grandiose ‘Lost Belongings EP,’ much more fragile than
anything that’s been released by them before.‘Sunshine Devils’ is a song of self-loathing and realisation,
predominantly just vocals and percussion.‘Love Underground’ is a looming, murky but very affable ditty. By the end, you feel like they’re back to
their old selves with ‘Dead Girls and Daggers,’ the song with the fullest sound
and the most instant chorus.

Whilst it may initially feel like a comedown from the
adventure of previous releases, about five listens in these songs get into you,
and they stay, putting this up there with some of the best songs they have ever
written.Having had this EP for about a
week, my I-pod is starting to sigh with my predictability.It’s a compulsive listen that grows. Few
bands are worthy of the near sycophantism.It’s a new dimension to what they do, these self-referential confessions
told with elements of remorse.The
context of this release makes each track poignant, with the themes never
sounding more explicit than on ‘Devil’s Son.’

W&H: Why did you
decide to release the new EP in association with YoungMinds?

Mental illness is a very tricky subject and it affects a
great many people. Illness and disorders of this sort are difficult to diagnose
and even harder to understand. We felt it necessary to bring the matter forward
and discuss it. YoungMinds is the only UK charity which provides help to
children, teenagers and parents. It informs and educates; two things that are
very much required in this field.

It’s never felt necessary before, though it has been
referred to in passing occasionally in interviews.However, it’s something that we felt needed
to be aired openly and honestly at this time in particular. This recent EP
would have simply not existed had this subject not been deemed relevant. It was
something that needed to be dealt with extremely sensitively but also firmly.
It has been an emotional experience; ‘Curse of the Mirror Wicked’ has been much
more than just a release of our band’s music. It has served as an
exorcism.After the tricky few years
we’ve encountered, we now feel able to walk into 2010 confidently, free from at
least one of the skeletons that have been lingering beside us all.

W&H: Do you think
this will make people rethink the back catalogue, especially lyrically?

Rethinking is always good.If your relationship with a particular piece of music or art continues
to grow, that shows you’re still engaged with it and that you haven’t started
to take it for granted.Depending on how
deep you want to dig, there is a wealth of clues and crossed words to realize
in both past and present material. What is important to us is that people’s interpretation
is their own.Having said that, people
shouldn’t go back and assume that everything the band has put out in the past
relates solely to one particular subject, just because the current release is
focused around it.

W&H: How much of
yourselves do you want people to find out through your music?

As much as is necessary and whatever we feel is relevant.
We’re not about to discuss every minor detail of our personal lives, but on
this occasion mental illness and schizoaffective disorder was significant. The
EP directly relates to the area under discussion. We felt it was the right time
to bring focus upon it, talk about it openly, and hopefully raise
awareness.We also want to make the
point that this type of illness – and indeed any other kind, mental or physical
– is merely one aspect of a person’s life.It doesn’t define them.To use
one of our favourite images, it’s just a single piece in a much larger puzzle.

There has always been something cathartic about the music of
Lupen Crook.The songs to date have provided
a tour round the darker parts of life, full of evil deeds, sexual ambiguity,
fear, aggression and allegory. It’s all
those thoughts that you try to quell, put poetically and delivered with
melodies that have you singing inappropriate things at inopportune moments.2006’s debut (Accidents Occur Whilst
Sleeping) was an eye-opener, a macabre Disney-esque collection full of brutal
moments that would outrage the moral majority, whilst eliciting wry smiles in
the more bleak minded.

For second album ‘Iscariot the Ladder’, he returned with
company, formally joined by The Murderbirds (namely brothers Tom and Bob
Langridge) and a whole new
dynamic.It was an album of persecution,
depravity and at times loneliness; catchy and bold it led W&H to challenge
the music world to find a more worthy album of the year (the music world
failed).Much of the sentiment and the
allegory once again was outwardly obtuse, not something you can truly understand,
but the lyrics have always been startlingly original and as a fan you can’t
help but wonder about the motivation behind it all.

In between and during, there has been a plethora of EPs
and
extra releases, abandoned ideas and redrawn blueprints that combined
make for
quite a prolific few years and a wealth of songs that may never be heard
by the
wider public due to a lack of interest from the mainstream media.Whilst the NME continues to play it safe with
the uninspiring pretenders to the indie throne, there are many kind
words to be
found about the band online, albeit without the vast readership.A
little of this frustration has manifested
itself in ‘Love Underground’ from ‘The Curse of the Mirror Wicked.Is this something that worries them?

“It is extremely frustrating at times, because we
know that
there are a great many people who, given the chance, would truly enjoy
and
understand what we are doing. So far the industry has not been ready to
accept
a band like ours and that is a shame. No matter though - we will
continue
turning people onto our music, with or without the support of the music
industry, even if we have to do it one by one.”

The recent revival of the illegal downloading
debate has
seen accusations flying towards Radiohead that they can afford to give
their
music away for free, and that they’re killing music for the smaller
bands.Lupen Crook & The Murderbirds are
taking
more pragmatic approach, having embraced the internet of late by
launching
their own website, where the two free EP’s have been made available this
year.

“Several members of the Crooked Family are big
Mountain
Goats fans.We think John Darnielle said
it best a few years ago: “The only people who are afraid of file sharing
are
the people whose albums are so dull presentation-wise that nobody cares
about
owning the actual finished product, and the people who have so little
connection to their listeners that said listeners have no reason to care
whether the artists they like are getting reimbursed for their efforts.”

“Our own experiences with the limited-edition CD
version of
our Lost Belongings EP have borne out this sentiment.Fans
were less interested in the standard
edition – they wanted the version with the hand-made canvas sleeve, even
though
it was twice the price and contained exactly the same number of songs.File sharing is a fact of our times and most
file sharers are simply individuals who love music.For
every person who “gets away” without
paying for one of our releases, there’s another person who gets turned
on to us
and starts coming to our gigs or buying our merchandise.We focus on providing something of worth to
the fans that are able and willing to show their support in any way they
can.”

People have shown their support recently using the
Tip Jar
function on the website to drum up the cash to bring home their beloved
tour
van, and engaging with the content beyond the music.This
is place where The Crooked Family’s paintings,
video clips and other projects are displayed, open to comments and
interest. It’s a window to the things that would
elude
you if you just bought the CDs and attended the occasional live show.

W&H: Who are The
Crooked Family these days, and what do they all do?

The Crooked Family is as much an ethos as it is a
group of
particular people.Having said that,
it’s also a very genuine thing that is far more than a concept. It comes
from a
desire to connect with people and have them able to connect with us.
It’s also
a way of acknowledging those people who hold this band together. We’ve
seen a
lot of people come and go over the past few years; all have been
welcome,
however, with so many uncertainties and troublesome times past, there
are those
who have stuck fast. A support network has developed amongst us all,
which is
why we are family now. Each of us is encouraged to seek out the best in
themselves and then we collaborate in varying combinations, depending on
whatever objective we have in mind.It’s
that “together we’re stronger” idea. When someone falls, there will
always be another
to pick them up.This ship will continue
to sail no matter what storm threatens to weather it.

Photo: Jenny Hardcore

Through your website,
you’ve very much connected directly with your fans this year.Do you think this is the best way for lesser
known bands to make their mark these days?Do you want to be a huge band?

We would like every single human being on this
planet to a
least have the chance to experience what we are doing. Whether people
like it
or loathe it is a different matter; that has to be their decision. The
website
has provided us with a place to keep up continual communications with
our
audience.It also gives strangers to our
band the opportunity to visit, to see what we have done and what we are
currently doing. Over the last year it has brought focus to the band.Because it is so easily accessible by both
ourselves and others, a sense of community has begun to develop. The
vision for
this website came from family member Hg, and all credit to him, because
he has
provided a platform through which the entire family can express
themselves.It is a place where ideas can be seen
to
develop, and so it is the perfect breeding ground for realising
ourselves.

Next year sees the release of album number 3, and a
UK tour.So what are their plans for 2010? “We
want to
extend our arms outward and touch as many people as possible.”

With a stack of songs both legal and free, perhaps
it’s time
you accepted the embrace.